The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1887-01-22

younger luuu me, du sue Was the
prettiest girl l over see. she had
golden hair and blue eyes, and was
dressed nice; that is, her clothes
looked as if she had been rich once.
Her mother was widder, like mine,
| aud had come to Brunswick to give
| lessons in elocution. This girl says to
! Mrs. Myers, our boss: I'd like to learn
this trade. We are poor, very poor
indeed, and I want to help mamma"
The color came into her face when
she said it, aud she looked ready to
cry. Mrs, Myers sat her down by me,
and began TO teach her. Pretty soon
shewas called upstairs, an she told me
to help the new girl. l turned round
to tell her something, an she see my
eye. It's been put out for years, and
! 1've sor,er got used to it, though it
| makes me feel bad sometimes. \ boy
! did it with his bow and arrow. Well,
| she see it, an She says:
"Don't turn around again, for heav.
EMS sake! I'd rather never learn
| than see that horrid eye, it makes me
faint.'
.'Then she put her head on the table
and began to cry, but Mrs. Myers
came down after awhile and helped
her. She never c.Aid work very fast,
am sometimes I'd help her when I'd
got my stint done. / didn't think no
harm of what she said, am though She
wouldn't sit by me and hardly ever
spoke to me, it was no more than she
done to the other girls. They called
her 'My Lady, just in fun, you
know.
"The mornin' the factory burned
she went way up to the loft, up in
the at,ics, to carry up some boxes.
She'd never been up there 'afore, ,an
1 was IA wouderin' if she could find
her way down agin, when l smeiled a
horrid smell, the room got full of
smoke, and folks outside begun to
holIer sFire!'
"The girls overhead came screamin'
down, an them in the room with me
climed out the winders, an some on
'em tainted. Mrs. Myers was get,in'
'em out, am no one thought of sMy
Lady
"The fire broke out in the second
story; ii was all afiame, and she
couldn't git down.
"Something put it into my head
that there was small stairway hardly
ever used cause it was so ricketty, nm
l conlr, go up this way to the top of
the house,
"The door was rusty I had 10 pull
till my hands bled, but / got it open
an ran up those stairs. The second
iloor landing was so hot that it burned
my shoes, an l could hear the flames
crackIin' behind the door. The third,
floor landing was sheet o: flames
the fire had burned up through. l
| jumped over the fire and pulled open
burnin' door. When l was trying to
unlatch il ! burned my arms, but l
got it open aud run into the further
room. The smoke was SO black IAN
! choking l could hardly breathe, sut l
got TO the front stairs, an there she
was, kneeling down praying. The
| flames was coming up then, and be-
hiud her was the black smoke, an
she, not knowing nothing about the
place, would a. died. l caught hold
OF her arm. l scared her, but She only
said God sent you = and foitered me.
| Up there in the smoke l thought of II
thing I'd heard, that to cover up your
head with ycur dress would keep you
from suii0cating.
! "BDih of our dresses was w0IlCn, am
wc ranpcd 'em around us. l took her
| band, and We run down tho stairs !;
they was alire, cracking am charripg
underueaih our feet, bat the water
from the engines kept it down, an
we got a sprinkiin', too, which / thiuk
saved us, as our clothes was awfuHy
not, am burned our hands jest TO tech
'cm.
ave reached the lower floor just as
the top of the building fell in. The
draught of air made great flame
reach right up Git seemed TO me) into
the sky.
"Ou'side the crowd bad jest missed
us, an mother and her mother was
a>runnin' round prayin' The fremen to
go in after US; but Of course they
couldn't.
"WhGn we came cut, all black and
/ burned, you oughtcr heard the cheer
they set up. l jest remember mothers
face, and hearing Judge Barker say ::
She's a heroine, maam.' Then /
guess tainted.
"W ell, pve been sick u spell; now
Pm going up to the hospital in Ports
land to git cured. Folks has been very,
very kind, Mother says she never kin
fprgil 'cm, nor ] elher.
"My lady has got the brain fever,
af' IS very sick, but she's go, II uncle
or some relation come from Californy,
SO | guess she'll never have to work
nyniu